The Laundress

A Novel

Barbara Sapienza

• Publisher: She Writes Press
• Year: 2020
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9781631526800
• Subtopic: Literature General
• Index: Literature

Twenty-six-year-old Lavinia Lavinia is burdened by her unknown heritage—but her uncle Sal, who raised her in San Francisco, has always kept silent, refusing to reveal the devastating secret of her origin. And now, following the death of his wife, he’s left for Italy.
In the wake of her uncle’s departure, Lavinia has quit school. Now she works as a personal laundress to a diverse cast of San Francisco residents—people with stories as complicated as her own. As time progresses, through the sacred ritual of washing clothes—and with the help of a friend and her nurturing, flamenco dancing mother—Lavinia begins to recover memories of her past. Gradually, her gifts of receptivity multiply, and she communes with nature, finding messages from birds and the leaves of her garden’s fig tree. And when she recovers Raggedy, a beloved doll that accompanied her from Naples when she was four years old, she experiences a tangible connection to her own mother.
Even as Lavinia makes these discoveries, she is busy building new relationships—discovering healing dance with her lover, a barista in a North Beach coffee shop; learning to understand Time and forgiveness with an elderly client; and even getting to know her father, a man who has never been a part of her life. Poetic and poignant, The Laundress is a coming-of-age story for anyone who’s ever sought to understand where they came from in order to figure out who they’re meant to become.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Chapter 1: The Rings of Time
• Chapter 2: The Blue Stain
• Chapter 3: Tamales and Tequila and Raggedy
• Chapter 4: Working Like a Dog
• Chapter 5: The Tool Shed
• Chapter 6: The Name
• Chapter 7: La Querencia
• Chapter 8: The First Dance
• Chapter 9: The Wolf
• Chapter 10: A Letter from Sal
• Chapter 11: Upstairs
• Chapter 12: Kinky and Lavinia
• Chapter 13: The Contraption
• Chapter 14: Flamenco Daze
• Chapter 15: A Night Walk in the Woods
• Chapter 16: Quitting Day
• Chapter 17: Via Toledo, #9
• Chapter 18: Time Travel
• Chapter 19: Falling into a Galaxy of Connection
• Chapter 20: The Discovery
• Chapter 21: Tell it Straight
• Chapter 22: The Revelation
• Chapter 23: New Eyes
• Chapter 24: In-the-Earth Parents
• Chapter 25: The Unfinished Pieta
• Chapter 26: Mourning
• Chapter 27: Long Distance
• Chapter 28: Beautiful Sad Eyes
• Chapter 29: Breaking the Curse
• Chapter 30: Miles to Fly
• Chapter 31: The Sierra Nevada
• Chapter 32: Sweet are the Uses of Adversity
• Chapter 33: Going Home
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author